Entry into and Exit from Multiple Job Holding in the United States

Jennifer Holland , Erasmus University Rotterdam
Brenda Vermeeren, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Labor market liberalization has led to a rise in the availability of non-standard, non-full-time jobs (OECD, 2017). As a result more workers are able or required to combine two or more jobs. Multiple job holding can be a mobility strategy, to gain expertise or skill diversification, or it can be a survival strategy for making ends meet. While multiple job holding is increasingly common, little is known about decision processes regarding entry and exit from multiple job holding (Freese, Dorenbosch, & Schalk, 2017). In this paper we ask: who are multiple job holders? And what predicts entry into and exit out of multiple job holding? Using data from the United States National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we build descriptive regression models to differentiate single and multiple job holders by their individual demographic, socio-economic and family characteristics. We then take a dynamic approach, exploring how (changing) individual and family characteristics predict entry into and exit from multiple job holding, using random- and fixed-effect models. Results will highlight the motivations and resources associated with multiple job holding, and provide insights into how multiple job holding fits into young- and middle-adult life courses in the 21st century.

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 Presented in Session 42. Unemployment and Labor Markets